EnviroConserve Magazine, Aug- Oct, 2016

“Africa has a major role to play in the global efforts to reverse climate change, protecting its vast natural forest and safeguarding its rich ocean resources is centre to the continent’s contribution in averting the catastrophic effects of climate change”.- Njeri Kabeberi- Executive Direcor- Green Peace Africa

“While diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us,” the White House said in a statement on the Montreal Protocol deal on HFCs sealed in Rwanda.

In addition, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal was “a monumental step forward” as he left the talks in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

“There is an urgent need to fight climate change, halt ecosystem destruction, and reduce pollution. By protecting our planet, we protect ourselves and we can bring every last person out of poverty. We all have a stake in a healthy planet.” - Erik Solheim, UNEP - Executive Director

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Editor’s Opinion Vol. 14 No. 45 August - October 2016

HFCs Phase Out: A great step to combat climate change A global deal reached recently in Rwanda to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in the battle to combat climate change is a monumental step forward and laudable.

The agreement seeks to reduce the use of HFCs - a major emitter of greenhouse gases – which contributes to climate change. The agreement takes effect in a gradual process beginning in 2019, with action by developed countries including the US, the world’s second worst polluter.

More than 100 developing countries, including China, the world’s top carbon dioxide emitter, will start taking action in 2024, sparking concern from some groups that the action would be implemented too slowly to make a difference. A small group of countries, including India, Pakistan and some Gulf states, also pushed for and secured a later start in 2028, saying their economies need more time to grow.

Worldwide use of HFCs has soared in the past decade as rapidly growing countries like China and India have widely adopted air conditioning in homes, offices and cars. But HFC gases are thousands of times more destructive to the climate than carbon dioxide, and scientists say their growing use threatens to undermine the Paris accord signed by 195 countries last year to reduce climate emissions.

In addition to Rwanda’s HFCs deal, more countries have also crossed the threshold for the Paris Agreement to enter into force and reached a deal to constrain international aviation emissions. Together, these steps show that, while diplomacy is never easy, countries can work together to have a planet that is safer, more prosperous, and more secure for these and future generations.

These agreements are laudable as they all addresses the needs of individual nations but they also give the world community an opportunity to reduce the warming of the planet by an entire half a degree centigrade.

Indeed, agreeing to phase out the use of HFCs is the single most important step world leaders have taken to limit the warming of the planet. We all know that the window of time that we have to prevent the worst climate impacts from happening is in fact narrowing and it is closing fast.

Therefore, the Rwanda HFCs deal and the Paris Accords are timely, and for the first time, it’s praiseworthy, to see how major economies supported for the faster phase out of HFCs. The US and other western countries want quick action. Small island states and many African countries have also pushed for quick action, saying they face the biggest threat from climate change.

HFCs were introduced in the 1980s as a substitute for ozone-depleting gases but are now considered a uniquely dangerous threat to the climate.

According to the Berkeley National Laboratory, about 1.6bn new airconditioning units are expected to be switched on by 2050, with the potential of raising global temperatures significantly. Air conditioning is largest cause of HFC growth, but the gases are also used in fire suppressants, insulating foams, inhalers and data centre cooling systems.

David Matende Editor

Group Publisher Robert Opio Editor David Andrew Matende Staff Writer Chris Wandera

Correspondents Obadiah Ayugi - Nairobi Ben O’Nyasimi - Kigali Guest Writers Mugambwa David - Kampala Sales & Marketing Manager Robert Oduori

Advertising Executives Grace Akello Ben Byaruhanga Design & Layout Vincent A. Ooko Send articles for publication to the publisher EnviroConserve AFRICA P.O. Box 8585, Kampala, Uganda Tel: 256-414-372581, Tel/Fax:256-414- 268997 E-mail: enviroconserve@gmail.com, www.ecoprofiles.org Nairobi Office: P.O. Box 18660- 00100 Nairobi Tel: 254-20-2076903/+254-20-3505603 Fax: 254-20-2211500 0734-262734/0725-319664

Disclaimer EnviroConserve AFRICA, encourages stakeholders to submit articles for publication. The publisher reserves the right to edit all non sponsored articles before publication. Neither the publisher nor any person acting on behalf of the publisher, may be held responsible for the use to which information (content) in this publication may be put. Noncommercial reproduction authorized subject to acknowledgement of source and must obtain written permission.

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Contents

CONTENTS “Africa has a major role to play in the global efforts to reverse climate change, protecting its vast natural forest and safeguarding its rich ocean resources is centre to the continent’s contribution in averting the catastrophic effects of climate change”.- Njeri Kabeberi- Executive Direcor- Green Peace Africa

“While diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us,” the White House said in a statement on the Montreal Protocol deal on HFCs sealed in Rwanda.

In addition, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal was “a monumental step forward” as he left the talks in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

UPDATES 6 Rwanda: Greenhouse Gas deal sealed

“There is an urgent need to fight climate change, halt ecosystem destruction, and reduce pollution. By protecting our planet, we protect ourselves and we can bring every last person out of poverty. We all have a stake in a healthy planet.” - Erik Solheim, UNEP - Executive Director

7 UN Environment Assembly (UNEA): Calls for a life of diginity for all

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12 A2R initiative to speed up climate change reselience 13 ECOTRUST: Showcased Uganda’s conservation initiatives at IUCN’s WCC in Hawai 14 Inequalities exacerbate climate change impacts on poor and vulnerable people – new UN report

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ENVIRONMENT 16 Little Hands Go Green and NEMA Tie Up Partnership - World Environment Day 17 UN Environment: New Executive Director, Erik promises to tackle environmental challenges

OPINION 18 The world need to invest around US$ 90 trillion for greening world economy to secure an orderly transition to sustainable development

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21 Africa Week 2016 focussed on Partnership for Agenda 2063

BUSINESS & ENVIRONMENT 22 Business Alliance embraces sustainable development goals

SPECIAL REPORT 25 Exporting Pollution: Traders dumping dirty fuels and vehicles

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in Africa 26 Urban Air Pollution: Nairobi’s air pollution sparks Africa health warning 28 6.76 Billion People: Living with excessive Air Pollution -

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31 CO2 levels mark ‘new era’ in the world’s changing climate

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Updates

RWANDA:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing the meeting

197 nations have agreed to cut greenhouse gases by setting up deadlines

By Staff

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early 200 nations have agreed on a legally binding deal to cut back on greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a major move against climate change that prompted loud cheers when it was announced on 16th October 2016, in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

The deal, which includes the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China, divided countries into three groups with different deadlines to reduce the use of factory-made hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, which can be 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as greenhouse gases.

“While diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us,” the White House said in a statement on the deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the

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deal was “a monumental step forward” as he left the talks in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

Under the pact, developed nations, including much of Europe and the United States, committed to reducing their use of the gases incrementally, starting with a 10 percent cut by 2019 and reaching 85 percent by 2036.

Many wealthier nations have already begun to reduce their use of HFCs. Two groups of developing countries will freeze their use of the gases by either 2024 or 2028, and then gradually reduce their use. India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and the Gulf countries will meet the later deadline.

They refused the earlier date because they have fast-expanding middle classes who want air conditioning in their hot climates, and because India feared damaging its growing industries.

“Last year in Paris, we promised to keep the

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world safe from the worst effects of climate change. Today, we are following through on that promise,” said U.N. environment Chief Erik Solheim in a statement, referring to 2015’s Paris climate talks.

The deal binding 197 nations crowns a wave of measures to help fight climate change. The 2015 Paris Agreement to curb climate-warming emissions has also passed its required threshold to enter into force after India, Canada and the European Parliament ratified it recently.

But unlike the Paris agreement, the Kigali deal is legally binding, has very specific timetables and has an agreement by rich countries to help poor countries adapt their technology.

A quick reduction of HFCs could be a major contribution to slowing climate change, avoiding perhaps 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 Fahrenheit) of a projected rise in average temperatures by 2100, scientists say.

UPDATES

UN ENVIRONMENT ASSEMBLY (UNEA):

Calls for A Life of Dignity for All

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undreds of environment ministers, decision makers, scientists, civil society representatives and business leaders in June gathered in Nairobi for the inaugural meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), a new world body that places environmental issues at the heart of international affairs and provides fresh impetus to tackle growing global challenges.

For many, the creation of UNEA is the coming of age of the environment as a world issue, as it places environmental concerns on the same footing with those of peace, security, finance, health and trade for the first time.

Held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters under the theme “A Life of Dignity for All”, UNEA is set to tackle major challenges, including the illegal trade in wildlife; air quality and pollution; environmental rule of law; financing the Green Economy; and the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda, including sustainable consumption and production.

“UNEA marks a milestone in the four decade-long journey to accord environmental issues such as those outlined above the same status as the challenges to peace, security, finance, health and trade,” said former UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “The fact that for the first time all member states of the United Nations will be represented in UNEA means increased legitimacy, representation of all voices across the spectrum of both regional and developmental realities, and

empowerment of the Ministers responsible for the environment.”

“We must seize this historic opportunity here in Nairobi - so close to the Rift Valley, the cradle of mankind - to unite the world in its effort to achieve a course correction and shape a new, more sustainable future for humanity, one in which we live in harmony with the natural world and create a life of dignity for all,” he added.

During UNEA’s first session, Ms. Oyun Sanjaasuren, Minister of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia, was elected President of the first session of UNEA. “I stand ready to devote my efforts to ensure that we have an effective and productive session,” she said. The next two years would be critical in achieving progress in sustainable development, climate change Cont Page 8

The deal binding 197 nations crowns a wave of measures to help fight climate change.

Environmental groups had called for an ambitious agreement on cutting HFCs to limit the damage from the roughly 1.6 billion new air conditioning units expected to come on stream by 2050, reflecting increased demand from an expanding middle class in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

onwards so there is enough time to plan and mobilize finance,” he told media.

Benson Ireri, a senior policy adviser at aid group Christian Aid, said that all African countries had volunteered for the earlier deadline because they worried about global warming pushing more of their citizens into poverty.

The HFC talks build on the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which succeeded in phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used at that time in refrigeration and aerosols.

“It was a shame that India and a handful of other countries chose a slower time frame for phasing down HFCs but the bulk of nations, including China, have seen the benefits of going for a quicker reduction. It’s also been encouraging to see small island states and African countries a part of this higher ambition group,” he said in a statement.

A scientific panel advising the signatories to the deal said phasing out HFCs will cost between $4 billion and $6 billion, said Manoj Kumar Singh, India’s joint secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Donors had already put $80 million in a fund to start implementing the agreement, said Gina McCarthy, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The protocol contains provisions for noncompliance, ranging from the provision of technical and financial assistance to trade sanctions in ozone depleting substances, which will be widened to include HFCs. The original aim of the Montreal Protocol was to stop the depletion of the ozone layer, which shields the planet from ultraviolet rays linked to skin cancer and other conditions.

That effort cost $3.5 billion over 25 years, said Stephen Olivier Andersen, the director of research at Washington-based think tank Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. Scientists say it prevented 2 million cases of skin cancer.

“The implementation starts from 2024 EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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UPDATES

and other key issues, she stressed, adding: “With our ever-increasing demand for water and resources, we would need another five planets.”

Ms. Judi Wakhungu, Cabinet Secretary of the Environment, Water and Natural Resources of Kenya, said: “the solutions we seek come from every corner, and will require the participation of all states and partners. It is only together, as an international community that we can deal with the world’s everincreasing environmental challenges.”

Ms. Sahle-Work Zewde, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi, also welcomed all those attending the meeting. “This first-ever UNEA marks an important step in the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development [Rio+20],” she said.

Briefly reviewing the history of the United Nations in Kenya, she added: “UNEP remains the pioneer, indeed the heart and soul, of the UN presence here in Kenya.”

All 193 UN member states along with major stakeholders are represented at UNEA, which convened from 23-27 June 2014.

With this wide reach into the legislative, financial and development arenas, the new body presents a ground-breaking platform for leadership on global environmental policy.

Since UNEP’s inception in 1972, the environment has moved from the margins to the centre of the world’s sustainable development agenda. This reality that was reaffirmed by world leaders at Rio+20 in June 2012 - held 20 years after the ground-breaking 1992 Earth summit when they supported the strengthening and upgrading of UNEP, translating into universal membership for its new governing body, UNEA; increased resources; and improved mechanisms to engage civil society and

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other stakeholders.

This first session of UNEA will determine its relevance in the international setting and will define UNEP’s ability to address the greatest environmental challenges which face us today, and in the future. At UNEA, Ministers had the opportunity to exchange views on and provide inputs to the definition of the post-2015 development agenda, thus ensuring that environmental concerns are reflected and integrated into the post-2015/ Sustainable Development Goals framework.

During UNEA, UNEP launched a new report on South-South Trade and the Green Economy, which explores the growing movement of development “for the South, by the South” through an environmental lens.

In addition, a strategic paper on Sustainable Consumption and Production Indicators was presented, providing tools for governments seeking to chart a more sustainable course in their countries’ consumption and production patterns.

At this meeting, Ministers also had an opportunity to address the illegal trade in wildlife, currently emerging as one of the most serious global concerns. A joint UNEP-INTERPOL Rapid Response Report was launched, highlighting the links between environmental crime, insecurity and threats to sustainable development. The perverse effects of these criminal activities are being dramatically witnessed also in Kenya and throughout Africa, where the existing populations of elephants and rhinos are been killed for their ivory, thus posing a threat not only to the survival of these species in the wild, but also to the livelihoods of local communities and the development ambitions of the continent.

Other significant events at UNEA included the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding between UNEP and the European Commission; the launch of the

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10-year edition of the UNEP Yearbook 2014, which reviews a decade of key and emerging environmental issues; and the launch of the 2014 World Investment Report, the annual flagship publication of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

At a Global Symposium on Environmental Rule of Law, Chief Justices and Attorneys General, Auditors General, Government representatives and representatives from key civil society organizations discussed the ways and means by which the further development and implementation of environmental rule of law can help ensure just and sustainable development outcomes.

Similarly, a Symposium on Financing Green Economy brought together professionals of the finance sector, policy makers, and environmental economists to examine the relationship between capital markets and a Green Economy and to identify opportunities for mobilizing finance for sustainable investments.

In addition, a press conference was held on the state of the world’s oceans with the participation of Prince Albert of Monaco and José Maria Figueres, Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Commission and former president of Costa Rica.

Representatives of media outlets from around the globe attended UNEA, bringing the meeting’s high-level discussions to the public at large. They took part in media roundtables on a number of issues, ranging from environment and the rule of law to Small Island Developing States and the Green Economy, to plastics in the ocean.

Source:http://www.unep.org/newscentre/ Default.aspx?DocumentID=2791&ArticleI D=10902&l=en#sthash.9oHo8wFJ.dpuf

UPDATES

GREENPEACE AFRICA: Appointed Njeri Kabeberi Executive Director

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enyan born Njeri Kabeberi has been named Executive Director for Greenpeace Africa after an extensive search for someone with a combination of skills required to drive the organisation towards a people-powered movement.

The Greenpeace Africa Board said Africans are hungry for a fresh story projects a better take on nature, humanity, livelihoods, their future and their connection to the earth.

“It was critical to find someone who embodies passion, activism and understands the context of environmental justice in Africa, and we are confident that Njeri represents that,” said Greenpeace Africa Board Chair Brian Kagoro.

Greenpeace currently runs campaigns on four key issues on the continent: to protect the Congo Basin from large scale deforestation, stop overfishing in west Africa, promote ecological farming in the horn of Africa as well as demand a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in South Africa in order to reverse the impacts of climate change.

Ms Njeri joins Greenpeace after serving as chief executive officer of the Civil Society Reference Group and as the immediate former executive director of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy.

She is also a member of the board of advisors of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Idea) and chairs the board of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict.

Ms Njeri is passionate about social justice and women’s rights, and in 2010, amongst others, received the ILO Wedge Award.

She also has extensive INGO leadership and management experience and was on the Board of the Kenya Human Rights Commission for many years.

Ms Njeri Kabeberi Njeri will be leading Greenpeace Africa into a new wave of environmental justice for Africans by Africans Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/news/ Njeri-to-head-Greenpeace-Africa-/10563394258-11222x3/index.html

With a long history in human rights activism, Njeri will be leading Greenpeace Africa into a new wave of environmental justice for Africans by Africans.

“We will continue to work on our flagship campaigns but more so, we shall be working closely with communities to ensure that our campaigns speak to the local realities on the continent and can effect change in the day to day life of our people,” said newly appointed Njeri Kabeberi.

“Africa has a major role to play in the global efforts to reverse climate change, protecting its vast natural forest and safeguarding its rich ocean resources is centre to the continent’s contribution in averting the catastrophic effects of climate change.

It is important that the continent works together to push for an end to illegal logging, unsustainable fishing and a shift from industrial agriculture to ecological farming to ensure that our biodiversity is protected,” added Ms Njeri.

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UPDATES

EU - WWF: Conserve Rwenzori Mountains National Park with local communities Through various interlinked interventions, tourism promotion and environmental conservation, the project aims to restore the integrity of the Rwenzori Mountains, conserve its biological biodiversity, as well as support the improvement of livelihoods of the vulnerable communities bordering the National Park.

The European Union (EU) and WWF Uganda Country Office has partnered to implement a project called “Sustainable Financing of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park (SFRMNP)”.

The project aims to promote Community Based Tourism and development of new tourism products to increase revenue for the rural

poor living close to Rwenzori Mountain National Park (RMNP). The project is co-funded by EU and French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) and implemented by WWF Uganda Country Office.

So far, through the project’s intervention, three community groups have been supported in the area of capacity strengthening and have also been offered financial support to boost their tourism based activities.

Celebrating World Environment Day in style with Kinyara Sugar

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Rwenzori Mountains National Park

The Rwenzori Mountains National Park covers nearly 100,000 ha in western Uganda and comprises the main part of the Rwenzori mountain chain, which includes Africa’s third highest peak (Mount Margherita: 5,109 m). The region’s glaciers, waterfalls and lakes make it one of Africa’s most beautiful alpine areas. The park has many natural habitats of endangered species and a rich and unusual flora comprising, among other species, the giant heather.

The park has many species that are endemic to the Albertine Rift system, and there are several endangered species in the park. It has a high diversity of plants and trees. The park is noted for its botany, which has been described as some of the most beautiful in the world There are five distinct vegetation zones in the park, which change according to changes in altitude.

The park has 89 species of birds, 15 species of butterfly, and four primate species. The park’s wildlife varies with elevation, and its species include the forest elephant, chimpanzee, hyrax, black-and-white colobus, L’Hoest’s monkeys, duiker, and Ruwenzori Turaco.

One of the beneficiaries of this fund is Busongora Joint Farmers Association, a group of 516 coffee farmers from the frontline communities bordering the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Kasese district.

The members of the association have been trained in good agricultural practices to improve their coffee yield, value addition and diversification into coffee tourism; a shift from their traditional joint coffee processing and Marketing. They now boast of a new tourism product “The Rwenzori Coffee Experience” Through various such interlinked interventions, tourism promotion and environmental conservation, the project aims to restore the integrity of the Rwenzori Mountains, conserve its biological biodiversity, as well as support the improvement of livelihoods of the vulnerable communities bordering the National Park.

As part of its activities, the project is also piloting a Payment for Ecosystem Services; a sustainable

financing and conservation scheme where land owners are rewarded by the private sector that rely on the region’s ecosystem for improving land management practices which as a result also improve the water quality and quantity in the region. In this regard, a hydrological and Agronomic study was carried out to inform on the water quality and quantity of the main rivers in Kasese (Mubuku and Nyamwamba).

The study recommended best practices that should be adopted by farmers upstream for better land management. In addition, companies in Kasese District that are reliant on the district ecosystem, especially Hydropower companies, are already contributing to the catchment management efforts implemented by WWF and other partners. More companies are expected to join in and offer valuable support to this initiative.

The project (SFRMNP) is implemented in partnership with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Uganda Tourism Board, National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and Kasese District Local Government.

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CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE RESILIENCE:

A2R Initiative to speed up climate resilience before 2020 “The global thermostat continues to rise. Each month brings new temperature records and more floods, droughts and extreme weather events. Vulnerability to climate risk continues to increase. This translates to greater humanitarian need and more economic losses”.

By Staff Writer

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artners of a new UN-led platform to mobilize and accelerate action on climate resilience agreed at their meeting to move ahead with plans that will help meet the needs of a growing global population that is being impacted by climate change.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Initiative on Climate Resilience, known as A2R (Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape), was launched by world leaders during the Paris Climate Conference last year.

The A2R Leadership Group comprises Germany, Egypt, Morocco, Samoa, the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Resilience Partnership; Bangladesh based philanthropic Bank BRAC, Insurance Development Forum (IDF), Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Center, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Environment.

The Leadership Group is charged with implementing the transformational vision embedded in the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals through an unprecedented global multistakeholder partnership.

It will catalyze climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts to support people in addressing the challenge of climate change, contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the past two decades, 4.2 billion people have been affected by weather-related disasters such as floods, droughts and storms, including a significant loss of lives. At

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the same time, climate change is increasing at an unprecedented pace. Global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent broke numerous records in the first half of 2016. In addition, each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in modern temperature records, which date to 1880.

“We have no time to lose,” Mr. Ban told the Leadership Group. “The global thermostat continues to rise. Each month brings new temperature records and more floods, droughts and extreme weather events.

Vulnerability to climate risk continues to increase. This translates to greater humanitarian need and more economic losses.

“The A2R initiative will help countries secure expertise and financial resources for strengthening climate resilience. Today’s launch of the Leadership Group establishes A2R’s place within the UN system.”

The A2R initiative addresses the needs of the nearly one billion people who live in at-risk coastal areas just a few meters above rising seas, as well as those living in areas at risk of droughts, floods, storms and other climate-related risks.

“More than a tenth of the world’s population faces climate risks,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, deputy head of UN Environment. “The A2R initiative cannot solve this major challenge alone: we must work with the best partners to deliver more effective, scaled up action on climate resilience on the ground.”

“The hardest hit are the poor and vulnerable, including smallholder farmers, fishers, foresters and the indigenous - the same

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

people who provide the bulk of our planet’s food,” said Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General of FAO. “To feed a growing global population in a changing climate, we must support farming families to adopt risk sensitive agriculture for more productive, resilient and sustainable food systems.”

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said, “Building resilience is at the heart of UNDP’s efforts to promote a more inclusive and sustainable future for all. Climate change threatens livelihoods and erodes opportunities for poverty eradication.”

The A2R initiative focuses on accelerating climate resilience for the most vulnerable before 2020 by strengthening three elements: the capacity to better anticipate and act on climate hazards through early warning and early action; the capacity to absorb shocks by increasing insurance and social protection coverage; and the capacity to adapt development to reduce risks at the local, national, regional and international level.

At its first meeting on 24th September, the initiative’s Leadership Group and partners will discussed the need for measurable targets for each of the three pillars of A2R and ensure a high profile for A2R’s role in promoting the importance of climate resilience at the next global climate meeting (COP22) in Marrakech.

For more information on the A2R initiative, please visit http://www.a2rinitiative.org �

CONSERVATION

ECOTRUST:

Showcased Uganda’s Conservation Initiatives at IUCN’s WCC - Hawaii

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nce every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress brings together several thousand leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, and academia, with the goal of conserving the environment and harnessing the solutions nature offers to global challenges.

ECOTRUST led an initiative in which an e-poster presentation for the forum was developed to showcase conservation initiatives advanced by the 13 member organizations of the Uganda National Committee (UNC) of IUCN in the different thematic areas of; Health, Restoration, Poverty Alleviation, Social Equity, conservation planning and community participation that take a One Health Approach.

The Congress is the world’s largest and most democratic conservation forum - where IUCN Members vote on key The UNC actively took part in the member’s assembly conservation and environmental issues as well as electing leaders. which saw the passing of 106 policy motions.

This year’s theme was ‘Planet at the Crossroads’ which reflected A major lesson learnt from WCC is that strong partnerships the serious choices and actions the world needs to make to reverse are needed to implement conservation at the scales environmental declines and secure a healthy, livable planet.

The WCC Forum was held from 2 to 5 2016 was rich with informative and insightful included; high level dialogues, conservation workshops, knowledge cafe’s and electronic that explored the depths of conservation and

September events that campuses, posters, all innovation.

required. There is need to broaden and deepen the global dialogue about how we relate to nature, motivate collective action, and ensure that nature-based solutions are fair, just and enduring.

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CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE CHANGE:

Inequalities exacerbate climate impacts on poor and vulnerable people – new UN report

In the past 20 years, 4.2 billion people have been affected by weather-related disasters, including a significant loss of lives.

By Staff Writer

E

vidence is increasing that climate change is taking the largest toll on poor and vulnerable people, and these impacts are largely caused by inequalities that increase the risks from climate hazards, according to a new report launched by the United Nations, in early October.

“Sadly, the people at greater risk from climate hazards are the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized who, in many cases, have been excluded from socioeconomic progress,” noted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the World Economic and Social Survey 2016: Climate Change Resilience – an Opportunity for Reducing Inequalities, produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

“We have no time to waste – and a great deal to gain – when it comes to addressing the socioeconomic inequalities that deepen poverty and leave people behind,” he added.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York at the launch of the report, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic

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Development Lenni Montiel said: “Persistent inequalities in access to assets, opportunities, political voice and participation, and in some cases, outright discriminations leave large group of people and community disproportionally exposed and vulnerable to climate hazards.”

He added that through transformative policies, the governmenst can “address the root causes of inequalities, to reduce the vulnerabilities of people to climate hazards, building their longer term resilience.”

On transformative policies, the Chief of Development Strategy and Policy at UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Diana Alarcon, said such policies could help build climate change resilience, close inequality gaps, provide access to financial services, to diversification of the livelihoods, to quality education and health and social security. She added: “it is that kind of transformation that leads to development.”

While there is considerable anecdotal evidence that the poor and the vulnerable suffer greater harm from

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

climate-related disasters, the report determined that much of the harm is not by accident, but that it is due to the failure of governments to close the development gaps that leave large population groups at risk.

In Nepal, mountain infrastructure such as hydropower plants, roads, bridges and communication systems are at risk with climate change and more variability in water runoff.

In the past 20 years, 4.2 billion people have been affected by weather-related disasters, including a significant loss of lives.

Developing countries are the most affected by climate change impacts.

Low-income countries suffered the greatest losses, including economic costs estimated at 5 per cent of gross domestic product.

The report argues that while climate adaptation and resilience are overshadowed by mitigation in climate discussions, they are vital for addressing climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

CLIMATE CHANGE

PHOTO

Sites of floods in Budalabg’ District-Western Kenya Specifically, the report found that families living in poverty systematically occupy the least desirable land to damage from climate hazards, such as mud slides, periods of abnormally hot water, water contamination and flooding. Climate change has the potential to worsen their situation and thereby worsen pre-existent inequalities.

The report shows that structural inequalities increase the exposure of vulnerable groups to climate hazards.

According to the latest data, 11 per cent of the world’s population lived in a low-elevation coastal zone in 2000. Many of them were poor and compelled to live in floodplains because they lacked the resources to live in safer areas. The data also underscore that in many countries in South and East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, many people have no other option than to erect their dwellings on precarious hill slopes.

The report also found a larger concentration of poor and marginalized groups in arid, semiarid and dry sub-humid aridity zones which cover about 40 per cent of the Earth’s land surface. About 29 per

cent of the world’s population live in those areas and are facing additional challenges owing to climate change.

Transformative policies for addressing root causes According to the report, building resilience to climate change provides an opportunity to focus resources on reducing long entrenched inequalities that make people disproportionately vulnerable to climate hazards. The best climate adaptation policies, the report states, are good development policies that strengthen people’s capacity to cope with and adapt to climate hazards in the present and in the medium term.

Looking ahead, the report recommends the use of improved access to climate projections, modern information and communications technologies, and geographical information systems to strengthen national capacity to assess impacts of climate hazards and policy options statistically.

conference, informally known as COP21, countries committed to setting a goal of at least $100 billion per year for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries.

However, adaptation costs alone range from $70 billion to $100 billion per year by 2050 in the developing countries, and these figures are likely to underestimate real costs, according to the report.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for transformative policies to deliver on our collective promise to build a life of dignity for all on a cleaner, greener planet.

“The challenges are enormous, but the world possesses the know-how, tools and wealth needed to build a climate-resilient future – a future free from poverty, hunger, discrimination and injustice,” the Secretary-General stressed in the report, noting the importance of the enabling policy environment as well as the support of the international community.

The report voices a concern that international resources to support climate change resilience are insufficient. At last year’s Paris climate EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

15

Business & Environment NEMA’s Executive Director, Dr. Tom Okurut, in the middle joined Little Hands in tree planting during WED celebrations

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY :

U

Little Hands Go Green and Nema Tie Up Partnership

ganda’s Little Hands Go Green and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) teamed up to drive awareness, excitement and sensitize Ugandans about conservation of the environment.

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5 June to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth. Uganda however celebrated it a day later, on Monday 6th June, in Gulu district under the theme “Conserve Wildlife, Sustain Livelihoods.”

corridor with activities ranging from tree planting to anti-kavera sensitization and pass on environmental conservation messages. Joseph Masembe the CEO of Uganda’s Little Hands Go Green said these activities were carried out in all major town enroute to Gulu.

Uganda’s Little Hands Go Green and National Environment Management Authority have in the recent past had similar

World Environment Day activations kicked off on 3rd June with a appearances at Wobulenzi, Luwero, Bombo, Nakasongola, Mijera, Kafu, Kiryandongo, Bweyale and Kamdini Corner before visiting Hospitals, Markets, District Headquarters, NGO offices and people’s homes on 4th June.

On 5th June activations reached out to Watoto Church in Gulu ahead of visits to Kolo Abili Primary School, Gulu Baptist Primary School and Coch Ongaka Primary Schoo on 6th June, the day of the main celebrations.

This exercise activated the entire northern

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EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

partnership that has registered tremendous success. The two organizations recently organized the International Children’s Climate Conference, green festivals and visits to schools where pupils have been taught how to care for the environment.

This article was originally posted earthfind. co.ug ■

ENVIRONMENT

PHOTO Mr. Erik Solheim, UNEP Executive Director

UN ENVIRONMENT: Erik promises to tackle environmental challenges

F

ormer Norwian Minister for Environment and International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim, the new Executive Director of UNEP, has pledged to work with all countries to tackle world pressing environmental challenges, such as ocean and air pollution, the destruction of ecosystems, climate change and the relationship between the environment and conflict and migration.

Mr. Solheim joins UNEP after serving for three years as head of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“Financing the preservation and rejuvenation of our planet cannot be the purview of governments alone. Private sector finance is both vital for sustainable development, and an opportunity for business. As never before, markets are rewarding investments in clean and green jobs and technologies.”

Solheim also underlined that issues like climate change and sustainable development are issues that no one country or organization can solve themselves, and that the world must come together to tackle environmental challenges.

Solheim said, “There is an urgent need to fight climate change, halt ecosystem destruction, and reduce pollution for the benefit of all peoples everywhere. By protecting our planet, we protect ourselves and in the process can help bring every last person out of poverty. We all have a stake in a healthy planet.”

“With successes like the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, the world has achieved a lot in recent years when it comes to the environment. We can achieve a lot more. But the only way to do this is by working cooperatively. I look forward to working with member states and welcoming voices and efforts from all parts of society to tackle our common challenges.

He noted other urgent areas to address include the private sector investment needed for sustainable development, greening the finance sector and creating jobs and markets with clean and green technologies.

“Our planet is vulnerable, but I’m optimistic we can resolve the environmental problems we face. There’s little we can’t achieve when we pull together with cooperation, collaboration and a can-do attitude.”

Having spent most of his career fighting for the environment in national and global politics, including through nongovernmental organizations and during his combined ministerial portfolio, Mr. Solheim has focused on the challenge of integrating environmental and developmental issues.

During his ministerial tenure, Norway reached 1 per cent of its GDP for overseas development assistance and passed the unique Nature Diversity Act. He initiated the process leading to the global coalition to conserve and promote sustainable use of the world’s rainforests - the UN REDD - gaining invaluable diplomatic and organizational experience.

Holding an undergraduate degree in history and social studies from the University of Oslo, Mr. Solheim has received several awards for his work on climate and environment, including UN Environment Programme’s “Champion of the Earth” award, and contributed to a number of peace and reconciliation efforts, most notably as the chief negotiator of the peace process in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Solheim was born in 1955, he is married, with four children.

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

17

OPINION

GREENING WORLD ECONOMY:

The greatest challenge facing world leaders

Successful economies in the 21st century will protect and even replenish the planet’s ecosystems, reversing century-old economic norms that justified extensive environmental damage as societies developed.

O

ver the coming 15 years, the world will need to invest around US$ 90 trillion in infrastructure. Much of this investment will need to be “greened” to secure an orderly transition to a sustainable economy.

The United Nations Conference for Trade and Development estimates that about US $5 trillion to $7 trillion annually will be needed to finance the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by the UN in developing countries, which includes infrastructure development, poverty eradication and other key goals core to sustainable development.

Successful economies in the 21st century will protect and even replenish the planet’s ecosystems, reversing century-old economic norms that justified extensive environmental damage as societies developed.

The environment was seen as a “luxury good,” paid for by societies only when they became rich. Such norms explain why the dramatic rise in global income, eightyfold in real terms in the last century, has led directly to a decline in environmental capital — the world’s stocks of natural assets such as geology, soil, air, water and all living things — in 116 out of 140 countries, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Around 1 in 8 premature deaths globally are caused by air pollution; greenhouse-gas emissions add energy to the Earth’s atmosphere at a rate equivalent to the detonation of four nuclear bombs every second; almost 22 million people were displaced in at least 119 countries by natural disasters in 2013; and 21 of the world’s 37 largest aquifers have passed their sustainability tipping point.

China has followed this conventional

18

pathway throughout its recent industrial development, experiencing catastrophic air pollution and extensive contamination and depletion of both land and water, with tragic consequences for human health and safety. China now understands the urgent need to care for the environment well in advance of its becoming a wealthy society.

This is an unprecedented task, requiring an estimated additional annual investment in China of US$ 600 billion to finance remediation, protection and low-carbon, natural capital-saving industries such as renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Other major developing economies, similarly, from Brazil to India, and from Kenya and South Africa to Indonesia and Mexico, are now grappling with the comparable challenge of “going green” before they become materially prosperous. As Dr. Rathin Roy, director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, concluded, “From India onwards, all developing countries will have to industrialize without recourse to growing fossil-fuel consumption.

No country has done this before.”

Developed economies are also facing intense pressures to deal with their global environmental footprints. Most of their own rivers and land are no longer polluted.

But their global investments and supply chains create extensive environmental harm, just as their carbon-intensive lifestyles and economies contribute disproportionately to climate change.

Transitioning to a green, global economy provides immediate business and economic opportunities, as well as being an existential imperative. For example, renewables represented approximately

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

62.5 percent of net additions to global power capacity in 2015, and the market size of electric vehicles expanded 60 percent in 2014. The need to ensure environmental security is driving technology and business innovation, which in turn is driving up productivity in key sectors and providing new employment opportunities as fossil-fuelintensive and polluting industries decline.

Financing a timely, inclusive green transition is our greatest, collective, economic challenge.

Public finance has an important role to play. However, this role will be limited by the scarcity of public funds and competing shorter-term priorities.

For China, estimates indicate that only 15 percent of its green finance needs are likely to come from public sources, with the remainder having to come from private investment. The use of innovative instruments that use public finance to crowdin private capital will help certainly, whether through tax credits, blended financing used increasingly by development finance institutions, the deployment of sovereign wealth funds or even the use of central bank balance sheets. Deep-rooted changes will nevertheless be needed to ensure that the world’s financial and capital markets are doing the right thing for savers and investors, and for wider society. As Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said, the financial system needs a “reset” if it is to be aligned to the needs of a low-carbon economy that delivers private financial returns while benefiting communities.

Recognizing the need to align the financial system with the needs of tomorrow’s inclusive, green economy, China established a green finance work stream

OPINION

under its presidency of the G20. The G20’s Green Finance Study Group’s is co-chaired by the Peoples’ Bank of China and the Bank of England, and supported by the UNEP acting as secretariat.

China’s decision to include green finance in the G20 agenda was a significant innovation, particularly as it was placed in the finance track, bringing it under the authority and responsibility of finance ministers and central bank governors. Further amplifying this innovative step, three other groups associated with the G20 simultaneously initiated work on green finance: the “B20” group of companies, particularly banks and investors; the “T20” group of think tanks from across the G20; and the “C20” group of civil society organizations.

China’s G20 initiative on green finance benefited from initial inputs from three major sources. The first was China’s Green Finance Task Force, established in early August 2014, co-convened by this article’s two authors on behalf of the Chinese central bank and UNEP. This task force, comprising 45 policy, regulatory and market institutions, published a set of 14 recommendations to advance green finance, covering fiscal, standards, regulatory, judicial, and institutional innovations and instruments, many of which have now been incorporated into China’s 13th FiveYear Plan (2016-20). Although exclusively China-focused, the recommendations drew heavily on international experience, and have in turn provided inspiration and guidance for subsequent green finance initiatives elsewhere in the world.

Next was the exemplary lead taken by the Bank of England in advancing a prudential review of climate-related risks to the UK’s insurance sector. The review was groundbreaking in being the first such systematic assessment of climate risks undertaken by any central bank. In addition, it offered methodological innovations that have subsequently informed a generation of comparable assessments by other central banks, notably the focus on the need to transform themselves with a combination of policy, technology and business changes to mitigate risks from climate change. Building on this work, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), chaired by the Bank of England’s Carney, initiated a related, international review of climate risks, which is currently being taken forward by an FSB-hosted task force on climate-related financial disclosure.

Third, the work by G20-linked committees benefited from the findings of the two-year UNEP study, titled “An Inquiry into Design Options for a Sustainable Financial System,” launched at the IMF Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru, in October 2015. UNEP’s inquiry documented the innovations in about 20 countries in mainstreaming green and sustainable finance through financial system development, including developed and developing country experiences, and across banking, insurance and the investment community. Such experiences, extending from enhanced disclosure requirements by stock exchanges to environmental lender liability for banks and product innovations such as green bonds, provided ready proof that actions already existed on the ground that could form the basis for the G20’s deliberations.

The G20’s initial assessment of international practice and options for mobilizing green finance is to be published at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou in early September, alongside a major international green finance event in Shanghai.

Over its six months of initial, intensive work, the Green Finance Study Group’s G20 members have directed researchers and international organizations, including the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank Group, to assess three core aspects of the financial system — banking, bonds, and institutional investors — and two cross-cutting themes: risk assessment and impact analysis. Summarized in a number of working papers, the evidence has been drawn from market innovations, including, for example, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s environmental risk stress testing program and the rapid growth of the green-bond market. It also looks at regulations and standards, such as the green-credit guidelines put forward by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and innovations in investor’s fiduciary duties.

Initial work undertaken by the G20 through the Green Finance Study Group has been mainly intended to map international practices, and to establish green finance as a legitimate, long-term agenda for finance ministers and central bank governors. The welcoming of the work to date clearly demonstrates success in this regard, and it is to be hoped that the work will continue under future G20 presidencies, such as Germany’s in 2017 and Argentina’s in 2018.

That said, a number of specific options were identified during this initial phase and

set out for voluntary adoption by financial institutions and countries, and through international co-cooperation. Examples of this include: progressing green bonds as a major source of financing for green infrastructure and enterprises; capacity development, particularly of the banking community in developing countries; and improved risk models and assessment to enhance environmental risk pricing.

Some other key options for development, such as the smarter use of available public finance and improved disclosure, were not included in the first year’s work.

The G20 leadership’s move to work on the topic of green finance, under China’s presidency, has had a positive impact in terms of encouraging international dialogue, policy and market developments.

Many G20 countries have advanced strategies for sustainable finance, such as Italy’s sustainable financial road map, Kazakhstan’s interest in establishing the Astana Financial Centre as a regional green finance hub, the green finance initiative of the UK’s City of London, India’s growing interest in catalyzing green finance, and the European Commission’s decision to undertake a strategic review of the place of sustainable finance in the continent’s capital market development plans.

Green bond markets have also been further encouraged by China’s focus on green finance, with Chin issuing over half of the world’s green bonds in 2016. The IMF and other international organizations have become far more active in the space, as have civil society organizations and the broader research community.

Success is ultimately measured by the speed and volume of finance channeled into less-carbon and natural capital intensive assets. Today, that redeployment is accelerating, but still from a very small base. There is a long way to go.

However, a critical step is to mainstream green finance by alerting and activating policy makers, regulators and standardsetters, as well as financial institutions.

Considerable progress is being made on this front, and the G20’s focus on green finance has contributed to this progress.

Source: Caixin Online Dr. Simon Zadek is co-director of the UNEP Inquiry into Design Options for a Sustainable Financial System and DSM Senior Fellow and visiting professor at Singapore Management University. Dr. Ma Jun is chief economist of the Research Bureau of the People’s Bank of China and chairman of the China Green Finance Committee.

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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AFRICA WEEK 2016:

Focused on Partnerships for Agenda 2063 Climate Change: Speakers recognized that Africa has done little to contribute to climate change mitigation measures but will be among those most affected.

T

he UN celebrated Africa Week 2016 under the theme ‘Strengthening Partnership for Inclusive Sustainable Development, Good Governance, Peace and Stability in Africa.’ UN leaders recognized socioeconomic progress in the region alongside continued and emerging challenges, including on infrastructure and gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Speakers supported South-South and triangular cooperation, and identified the African Peer Review Mechanism as an opportunity to improve good governance.

Africa Week took place from 10-14 October 2016, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on the margins of the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) consideration of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

(NEPAD). UNGA President Peter Thomson described Africa Week as an important opportunity for the international community to recognize progress in Africa, “particularly in the political, social, economic and peace and security fields,” raise awareness of ongoing challenges, and mobilize international support to address them.

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Environment

A High-level Inaugural Event addressed alignment between the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, the Paris Agreement on climate change and progress towards good governance. Thomson stressed the importance of building on “current highlevels of energy and momentum” around the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), to translate these agreements into action.

On the 2030 Agenda, UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon reflected that “the road to 2030 is long and arduous,” calling for working “together in unison and with vigor” to deliver a life of dignity for all and leave no one behind. Thomson elaborated that UNGA 71’s focus on “a universal push for meaningful progress in implementing all 17 SDGs” aims to contribute to this momentum. He further informed that his Office will release an SDG Implementation Strategy to drive implementation by: providing sustained engagement to support outcomes from mandated SDG events and processes, including the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), the Marrakech Climate Conference and the UN Oceans Conference; supporting existing efforts within and outside the UN system to drive strategic partnerships and implement each of the SDGs; and backing signature events to lay the foundation for sustained action in key areas through 2030. Thomson underscored that the Strategy’s priority areas are aligned with Agenda 2063.

On climate change, speakers recognized that Africa has done little to contribute to climate change but will be among those most affected. Ban said the Paris Agreement will help provide a framework, including for financing and technology transfer, for Africa to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

remain on infrastructure, dependence on commodity process and good governance at all levels. Participants also addressed the role of accountable institutions and strengthened partnerships in sustaining peace.

The UNGA held a debate on the ‘Development of Africa,’ based on three reports by the UN Secretary-General: Progress in the Implementation of NEPAD (A/71/189); Causes of Conflict and Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa (A/71/211-S/2016/655); and Review of the Implementation of Commitments made towards Africa’s Development (A/71/203). The latter report focuses on progress and challenges related to: infrastructure development, including the need to meet an estimated US$100 billion annually for large infrastructure financing; trade, with a focus on regional integration efforts and continuing challenges on developing productive capacities and achieving structural transformation through industrialization; a conflict-free Africa, including efforts to monitor, detect and curtail illicit financial flows; and gender equality and women’s empowerment, which highlights progress in education, health and political participation alongside persistent gender disparities, violence against women and inadequate

participation by women in peace processes.

The UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) provided a briefing to the UN Inter-Departmental Task Force on African Affairs (IDTFA) by the African Union Commission (AUC), the NEPAD and APRM on ways to further strengthen the institutional partnerships between the UN system and African regional and sub-regional organizations and to ensure effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

The briefing also discussed strengthening the APRM’s role in implementing Agenda 2063 and disarmament.

Other high-level events convened on good governance and the rule of law and partnerships for implementation and monitoring of the SDGs and Agenda 2063 in Africa, among other topics.

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BUSINESS & ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESS ALLIANCE: Embraces Sustainable Development Goals

Through the SDGs, inclusive business has reached a “tipping point” and is changing the way business is done.

By Staff Writer

Business Call to Action (BCtA)

held its 2016 Annual Forum on the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly (UNGA), with a focus on “inclusive business” and how it can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

BCtA launched two publications during the Forum: a joint report and toolkit to guide companies toward sustainable practices, produced with Deloitte and the UN Development Programme (UNDP); and a joint report produced with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on measuring business’ contributions to the SDGs.

Paula Pelaez, head of BCtA, highlighted the new commitments to inclusive business objectives that had been made by BCtA members in the past year. Magdy Martinez-Soliman, UNDP, called on businesses to demonstrate that social good and sound business goes hand-in-hand, and that their core processes facilitate the creation of an inclusive economy.

BCtA is a multilateral alliance among donor governments and UNDP, which hosts the Secretariat. Its member companies apply inclusive business models to engage people at the “base of the economic pyramid” (BoP) as consumers, producers, suppliers and distributors of goods and services, to contribute to development.

Keynote speaker Jayanth Bhuvaraghan, Essilor, reported that over US$200 billion is lost each year in productivity due to uncorrected vision problems, making vision screening and accessible care a precondition for the SDGs’ achievement. He underscored the need for scalable business models that are financially sustainable, and adapting these models to meet the needs of different consumers. By tapping into business potential in BoP markets, said Bhuvaraghan, businesses can develop a loyal consumer base, sowing the seeds for long-term growth.

The seventh annual Forum, which convened on 22 September 2016, in New York, US, gathered leaders from BCtA member companies, and officials from governments, donors, the UN and civil society.

In a panel discussion on ‘Greater impact and scale for the SDGs,’ held in partnership with Business Fights Poverty, moderator Laura Gitman, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), said the

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EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

SDGs provide a blueprint to help businesses coordinate their work for sustainability. Panelists emphasized the SDGs as an opportunity for companies to benefit low-income communities through their core businesses. To achieve local production and distribution, they noted the need for an enabling policy environment, and mitigating the risks of supply limitations and restrictive regulations.

Speakers also: said companies can mainstream sustainability at the senior-management level by basing executive compensation on non-financial objectives; and supported measurement of social as well as economic impacts.

In a panel on ‘Supporting inclusive business through multi-stakeholder action,’ moderated by Marcos Neto, UNDP, speakers agreed that the SDGs are transforming the idea of partnerships, from “opportunistic financial arrangements” into multisector collaborations focused on common objectives and shared values. They said transparency is a building block of sustained partnership. In order to earn trust, said panelists, companies must collect data on operations in each country to demonstrate concrete social, environmental

BUSINESS & ENVIRONMENT

and

economic

impacts.

At a breakout session on guiding companies toward sustainability, Sahba Sobhani, UNDP, highlighted the joint report and toolkit from BCtA, Deloitte and UNDP, titled ‘Uncharted Waters: Blending Value and Values for Social Impact Through the SDGs.’ W. Robert de Jongh, Deloitte, argued that inclusive business has reached a “tipping point” and is changing the way business is done. At the same time, he said, the SDGs are creating a common framework for business action.

Speakers also highlighted lessons on “maturing” toward inclusive business practices, citing multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis’ strategy to bring health-seeking behavior and health care to BoP markets; offgrid energy company BuffaloGrid’s innovative response to rural people’s energy needs; and healthmonitoring company Dimagi’s customizable technology platform.

The panelists agreed that scaling up business while serving the BoP takes patience and perseverance, cannot be undertaken in isolation, and requires continually assessing impacts and adapting business models to meet customers’ needs profitably. While start-ups face challenges as new entrants, established businesses must often disrupt their industries from within.

Finally, BCtA and GRI presented findings from their joint report, titled ‘Measuring Impact: How Business Accelerates the Sustainable Development Goals.’ Members of the publication team said the report takes a “first look” at how private sector measurement and reporting can help achieve the SDGs. Based on consultations with

businesses, the report shows that: “business” is not a homogenous group, and SMEs in particular need capacity building to measure and report on sustainability; policies can encourage greater monitoring and measuring of business’ impact on sustainability issues; and businesses can form partnerships to support measuring and reporting of their impacts.

Based on consultations with governments, the publication team reported that data on companies’ SDG contributions can help governments shape development plans and strategies, including to incentivize greater progress where Goals are being “left behind.”

They added that governments’ own statistical data will not be adequate to fully measure all SDG indicators in every country, and that most countries consulted for the report have a mechanism to interact with businesses on SDG reporting, or are currently establishing such a mechanism.

In a panel discussion moderated

by Pelaez, Anuj Mehra, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd., said his company provides home loans to people in villages and rural areas in India. Part of the loan process is updating land records to reflect current ownership, which Mehra said might be the company’s “biggest social impact.” He said the company studies its impacts on SDGs 1, 3, 5, 6 and 11, and has found that a healthy home reduces hospital visits for the family (SDG 3), and that women are increasingly co-borrowers (SDG 5). Mehra said Mahindra will use the findings in its branding and business strategy, underscoring that measurement and reporting can be in a company’s self-interest.

Christian Jahn, Inclusive Business

Action Network (IBAN) Executive Director, echoed that reporting can create value for a company, beyond just complying with regulations.

Punjanit Leagnavar, GRI, reported that when companies in Colombia report on their impacts, six of the top ten issues they report on relate to SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth). She suggested that governments can use such information to help align private sector reporting with national priorities. Leagnavar also said governments need “contextualized data,” and that a framework like GRI can aggregate data to provide context for each country or region.

Alexis Geaneotes, International Finance Corporation (IFC), said IFC is working to map project-level indicators to the SDGs, and then to tie them to the World Bank Group’s goals of poverty eradication and shared prosperity. She said IFC’s results monitoring framework: covers social, environmental and financial impacts; provides the estimated income level of clients’ markets, to increase their reach in BoP markets; and, through a third party evaluator, uses “insight tools” are used to understand BoP markets more broadly, such as how they view their relationship with the company and what products they need. the interactive discussion, participants commented on the need to: ensure that companies report on impacts rather than efforts; and ensure that government priorities, not just business opportunities, are driving business’ contributions on the SDGs. In

Source: read more: http://sd.iisd. org/news/business-allianceembraces-sdgs-as-commonframework-for-inclusiveness/

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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Special Report

EXPORTING POLLUTION:

Traders Dumping Dirty Fuels and Vehicles in Africa Public Eye found that highly polluting substances, such as the cancer-causing benzene, are mixed into fuels before being exported to Africa. Another key issue is the level of sulfur in fuels. In most developed countries, the level of sulfur in diesel is around 10-15 parts per million, but in the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Rotterdam, traders are mixing diesel fuels that, when ready for export to Africa, can have sulfur content as high as 10,000 parts per million.

A

Swiss non-governmental organization, Public Eye, has releases a report showing that clean fuels are being mixed with dirty fuel streams and other toxic substances in European ports for export to Africa.

They call it “blending” – mixing dirty products with cleaner ones to achieve fuel with “African Specifications”.

It is not only dirty fuels that are being dumped in Africa. Used vehicles of all sorts of ages and quality are being exported. Limited awareness and outdated or absent standards allow unscrupulous traders to make millions of dollars by exporting dirty products to the continent.

Dirty fuels and vehicles are resulting in major health impacts in African cities. African cities are urbanizing and motorizing more rapidly than any other continent. Outdoor air quality is quickly deteriorating, with vehicle emissions being a major source – often the major source.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7 million people die prematurely every year due to air pollution, about half of this due to outdoor air pollution, and that 98 per cent of cities over 100,000 inhabitants in low and middle income countries exceed WHO standards for key air pollutants.

One of the biggest dangers comes from small particulates, which enter the bloodstream through the lungs and cause damage across the whole body.

Recent studies have shown that some

of these pollutants accumulate in the brain. Vehicles are a key source of small particulates – in Africa, dirty fuels and old vehicles emit up to 100 times more of these particulates than in places like Europe.

is well maintained with reasonable mileage is quite clean, has modern technology installed, and would help leapfrog to cleaner technology in Africa. But a 16-year-old smoke-belching car is exporting pollution.

Public Eye found that highly polluting substances, such as the cancer-causing benzene, are mixed into fuels before being exported to Africa. Another key issue is the level of sulfur in fuels. In most developed countries, the level of sulfur in diesel is around 10-15 parts per million, but in the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Rotterdam, traders are mixing diesel fuels that, when ready for export to Africa, can have sulfur content as high as 10,000 parts per million.

UN Environment hosts the Secretariat of the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), which is a leading global publicprivate initiative to promote cleaner fuels and vehicles. The PCFV has 73 partners: governments, the oils and vehicles industry, civil society and international organizations.

For example, diesel fuels shipped to Nigeria and neighboring countries are at 3,000 parts per million sulfur. While this is not illegal, as standards in receiving countries are lacking or outdated and awareness is limited, it is unethical and unacceptable.

In Uganda, the average age of vehicles being imported into the country is 16.5 years. These vehicles may then be driven for another 20 years. Less than one percent of vehicles imported in Kenya are new, the other 99 per cent are used.

With a few exceptions, African countries import more used cars than new cars.

Many come from Japan and Europe.

Cars that risk to fail Japan’s stringent environment test are exported to Africa.

There is an urgent need to regulate this trade. A four-year-old imported vehicle that

We are supporting over 60 countries in developing policies and standards. And while much progress is being made – to date 23 developing countries have adopted low sulfur diesel standards – the majority of countries still lack the standards to avoid the dumping of dirty fuels and vehicles.

Many will argue that it is the responsibility of the 100+ countries that do not yet have up to date fuels and vehicles standards to protect the health of their citizens. I beg to differ. It is the responsibility of both the importer and the exporter. As we continue to introduce and sharpen standards in African countries, we also need to see action from the mainly western exporters of dirty fuels and vehicles. We need the West and Africa to agree that cleaner fuels and vehicles are most welcome, and will save lives, but that the era of environmental dumping is over.

Source: See more at: http://www. unep.org/stories/airpollution/ Dumping- dirty-fuels -and-vehicles i n - a f r i c a . a s p # s t h a s h . LT b I 4 b t B. d p u f

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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Special Report

URBAN AIR POLLUTION: Nairobi’s air pollution sparks Africa health warning Africa’s urban air is especially bad because so few cars are new, the vast majority having been shipped in secondhand from Japan and Europe with their catalytic converters and air filters dismantled.

It is in danger of becoming a dumping ground for the world’s old cars – importing vehicles that no longer meet rich countries’ pollution standards.

By Staff Writer

P

ollution in the Kenyan capital is ‘beyond imagination’. With Africa’s predicted rise in population – and a constant stream of dirty secondhand cars from Europe and Japan – this urban health crisis could kill 1.5 million within a generation.

A minibus belches black smoke; the lorry behind it in the traffic jam billows white fumes. Eyes smart in the smog as diesel gases from thousands of 10 and 15-yearold vehicles fill Nairobi’s hazy evening air, adding to pollution levels that are “beyond imagination”, according to one resident.

This jam could last for one, three, even five hours – last year, one stretched for 30 miles.

We could easily be in Cairo, Lagos or another African megacity, but this is the eight-lane Mombasa Road in Kenya’s capital – a permanently clogged artery in a metropolis where the number of vehicles doubles every six years.

Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa to have banned cars using the most sulphurous fuels, but what research there is suggests this is still one of the most polluted cities in the world – made worse by smoke from roadside rubbish fires, diesel generators and indoor cooking stoves.

people. The pollution is mind-boggling,” says Dorothy McCormick, a Nairobi university economics researcher and author of books on African transport.

“There are 16 times as many vehicles on the road as when I came – the city just cannot cope. We have no tarmac left, no congestion charge and people use charcoal, paraffin and wood to heat their homes. You can see the haze building up from the early morning. What do you do – stop breathing? There is no escape.”

With half the world’s population growth over the next 30 years predicted to occur in Africa, the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) expects the number of cars in African cities to rise dramatically.

“The vehicle fleet will double in the next seven years in Nairobi,” says Rob de Jong, Unep’s head of transport.

“The number of cars in Africa is still relatively small, but the emissions per vehicle are much higher [than the rest of the world].”

No one knows for sure, however, because like nearly all African cities, Nairobi does not regularly monitor its urban air quality.

Africa’s urban air is especially bad because so few cars are new, the vast majority having been shipped in secondhand from Japan and Europe with their catalytic converters and air filters dismantled. It is in danger of becoming a dumping ground for the world’s old cars – importing vehicles that no longer meet rich countries’ pollution standards.

“In 28 years of living in Nairobi, I have seen the number of people quadruple and car ownership go from 5% to 27% of

Across the continent, this explosion in car numbers, coupled with people cooking indoors on wood-fired stoves, is creating

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EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

an urban health crisis already estimated by the UN to be killing 776,000 people a year.

If unchecked, within a generation it is likely to kill twice as many annually, with devastating costs to public services and economies.

“Africa is urbanising and ‘motorising’ faster than any other region in the world,” says De Jong. “Its pollution is not yet level with New Delhi or Beijing, but it is getting there quickly. Respiratory diseases are now the number one disease in Kenya – and that is directly linked to air pollution. It is rapidly on the rise.”

According to Marie Thynell, an urban researcher at Sweden’s Gothenburg University who led a study of Nairobi pollution in 2015, the amount of cancer-causing elements in the air within the city is 10 times higher than the threshold recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Thynell’s research uncovered dramatic pollution spikes on all of Nairobi’s main roads.

“The pollution is uncontrolled and particularly deadly in slum districts and for drivers, street vendors and traffic police,” she says.

Michael Gatari, an environmental scientist at the Kenyan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, predicts the country will have “a very sick population in years to come. Even what limited data there is suggests it is around 30 times worse than in London, and that Kenya is building up an immense health problem. Thirty percent

Special Report

Air polluted city in Nigeria -Africa more diesel is being burned in Nairobi compared with five years ago. Without doubt, the pollution will have a huge economic and health impact. We will see more and more cancers and heart disease, many more asthma cases and respiratory diseases.” If action is not taken, the WHO estimates that Africa’s urban air pollution levels could quadruple in 15 years.

African air pollution is closely linked to poverty, according to Gatari. “In the slums, people light an open fire and close their windows; they are enclosed in very high pollution. Drivers mix good diesel with kerosene. There is a lot of burning of plastics and no proper incineration.

Dust is blown everywhere by the wind, and there is loose soil from farming.”

In west Africa, the manmade air pollution from the string of coastal cities including Lagos, Accra, Abidjan and Cotonou is now so bad that it is mixing with natural pollutants blown from the Sahara and affecting cloud cover and rainfall, according to Mat Evans, professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University, who is leading a large-scale investigation of air pollution in the region.

“A chain of megacities is building in Africa.

The continent is in the same position that China was 20 years ago – if Africa does not regulate its air pollution, it will be a disaster.”

Sulphur dioxide, benzene and carbon monoxide … may be a significant problem in African cities, says, Mat Evans

The WHO highlighted the danger from air pollution last month when it released data on 3,000 cities worldwide. The few African cities which had any public monitoring records all had particulate (PM) levels way over UN guidelines, and four Nigerian cities were among the world’s 20 worst-ranked.

Unless action is taken, says the WHO, the continent’s urban air pollution levels could triple or quadruple within 15 years.

Onitsha, a commercial hub in eastern Nigeria, had the world’s worst official air quality. A roadside monitor there registered 594 microns/cubic metre of PM10s, and 66 of the more deadly PM2.5s – nearly twice as bad as notoriously polluted cities such as Kabul, Beijing and Tehran, and 30 times worse than London.

Evans says that African cities such as Lagos have entirely different problems to London, where “pollution is mainly due to the burning of hydrocarbons for transport that can be addressed by tackling fuel usage through electric vehicles, and car-free zones.

“African pollution isn’t like that. There is the burning of rubbish, cooking with inefficient solid fuel stoves, millions of small diesel electricity generators, cars which have had their catalytic converters removed and petrochemical plants, all pushing pollutants into the air over the cities.

not been a problem in western cities for decades may be a significant problem in African cities. We simply don’t know.”

One important step forward, according to De Jong, would be to stop the dumping of old cars in Africa. “If African countries could set an age limit on imports, they could quickly improve pollution, and leapfrog technologies. The majority of vehicles which will be on the road in Africa in 10 years’ time are not here yet. If these countries impose higher import standards, the majority of the fleet will soon be compliant – but if we wait nine years, the majority of cars will have come to Africa and it will be locked in to heavy pollution.”

De Jong advocates the widespread introduction of electric bikes in Africa: “In China there will be 300 million of them by 2020. They are cheaper than petrol – it’s purely a policy and awareness problem.

“The problem can be avoided by acting now. There is a massive opportunity for Africa to go down another road. Its air pollution must be a priority for the world.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/ cities/2016/jul/10/no-escape-nairobi-airpollution-sparks-africa-health-warning

“Compounds such as sulphur dioxide, benzene and carbon monoxide that have EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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SPECIAL REPORT

6.76 BILLION PEOPLE: Living with Excessive Air Pollution – UN report In 2012, an estimated 6.5 million deaths (11.6 per cent of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together.

By Staff Writer

With

some 6.5 million people dying annually from air pollution and 92 per cent of the world’s population living in places where levels exceed recommended limits, the United Nations has revealed through its most detailed profile of the scourge ever in a bid to slash the deadly toll.

“Fast action to tackle air pollution can’t come soon enough,” top UN World Health Organization (WHO) environmental official Maria Neira said of the new air quality model, which includes interactive maps maps that highlight areas within countries exceeding WHO limits. The world’s population reached 7.35 billion last year, according to UN figures “Solutions exist with sustainable transport in cities, solid waste management, access to clean household fuels and cook-stoves, as well as renewable energies and industrial emissions reductions,” Dr. Neira added.

occur in low- and middle-income countries, with nearly two out of three occurring in the South-east Asia and Western Pacific regions.

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“Air pollution continues take a toll on the health of the most vulnerable populations – women, children and the older adults,” WHO’s Assistant

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Business & Environment

Adultrated fuel and old Vehicles dumped in Africa: the source of outdoor pollution in Africa

Director General Flavia Bustreo said. “For people to be healthy, they must breathe clean air from their first breath to their last,” she added.

Major sources of air pollution include inefficient modes of transport, household fuel and waste burning, coal-fired power plants, and industrial activities.

But not all air pollution originates from human activity. For example, air quality can also be influenced by dust storms, particularly in regions close to deserts.

“The new WHO model shows countries where the air pollution danger spots are, and provides a baseline for monitoring progress in combatting it,” Dr. Bustreo said.

Developed in collaboration with the University of Bath, United Kingdom, it represents WHO’s most detailed outdoor air pollution-related health data ever, based on satellite measurements, air transport

models and ground station monitors for more than 3,000 locations, both rural and urban.

Some three million deaths a year are linked to exposure to outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution can be just as deadly. In 2012, an estimated 6.5 million deaths (11.6 per cent of all global deaths) were associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution together.

Ninety-four per cent of the deaths are due to non-communicable diseases – notably cardiovascular diseases, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

Air pollution also increases the risks for acute respiratory infections.

“This new model is a big step forward towards even more confident estimates of the huge global burden of more than six million deaths – one in nine of total global deaths – from exposure to indoor and outdoor

air pollution,” said Dr. Neira, who is WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.

WHO’s Ambient Air quality guidelines limit annual mean exposure to particulate matter with a diametre of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5), such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon, which penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, posing the greatest health risks.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, adopted at a UN summit last year, call for substantially reducing the number of deaths and illnesses from air pollution.

In May WHO issued a new road map for accelerated action with local health sectors increasing monitoring and assuming a greater leadership role in national policies affecting air pollution.

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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Uganda’s State Of MDGs

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EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

CLIMATE & CARBON

CO2 levels mark ‘new era’ in L

the world’s changing climate

evels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for “many generations”.

The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015.

But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the first full year to exceed the mark. The high levels can be partly attributed to a strong El Niño event.

While human emissions of CO2 remained fairly static between 2014 and 2015, the onset of a strong El Niño weather phenomenon caused a spike in levels of the gas in the atmosphere.

That’s because the drought conditions in tropical regions produced by El Niño meant that vegetation was less able to absorb CO2. There were also extra emissions from fires, sparked by the drier conditions.

In its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the World Meteorological Organisation says the conditions helped push the growth in the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere above the average for the last ten years.

At the atmospheric monitoring station in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, levels of CO2 broke through 400 parts per million (ppm),

meaning 400 molecules of CO2 for every one million molecules in the atmosphere.

The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago, say experts.

Prior to 1800 atmospheric levels were around 280ppm, according to the US National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

The WMO says that the rise through the 400ppm barrier has persisted and it’s likely that 2016 will be the first full year when the measurements show CO2 above that benchmark, and “hence for many generations”.

While the El Niño factor has now disappeared, the human impact on climate change has not, the WMO argues.

“The year 2015 ushered in a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

2.5 times greater than in the preindustrial era, while nitrous oxide was 1.2 times above the historic measure.

The study also points to the impact of these increased concentrations of warming gases on the world’s climate.

Between 1990 and 2015 there was a 37% increase in radiative forcing or warming effect, caused by a build up of these substances, from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities.

While welcoming new initiatives like the global agreement to phase out HFC gases agreed recently in Rwanda, the WMO argues that nations must retain their focus on cutting CO2.

“Without tackling CO2 emissions, we cannot tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial era,” said Petteri Taalas.

“But it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations.”

“It is therefore of the utmost importance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter into force well ahead of schedule on 4 November and that we fast-track its implementation.”

The report also details the growth in other greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide.

Around 200 nations who signed the Paris climate agreement will meet in Morocco in November to decide on the next steps forward.

In

Sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/ science-environment-37729033

2015,

levels

of

methane

were

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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Business & Environment Plastic Waste Management

TORORO CEMENT LIMITED: PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Tororo Cement; Environmental, Community Press Release By Tororo Cement

F

ar-sighted organizational leaders recognize that lasting success must be built on credible business practices and the prevention of such actions as labour exploitation. In contrast, today’s competitive business organizations are finding it necessary to operate in a socially responsible manner to meet the needs of customers, consumers, governments, associations and the general public. This is to signify that, sustainable business and/ or lasting success for organizations means not only providing products and services that satisfy the customer, and doing so without jeopardizing labour practices and the environment, but also operating in a socially responsible manner.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development have now emerged as strategic elements of overall firm management extending the role of environmental responsibility well beyond the traditional scope of the Environmental Manager alone. In recent times, corporate environmental responsibility has evolved and expanded to cover substantially more than pollution prevention, waste minimization and legal compliance. Consequently, environmental management, once considered a sunken-cost, driven by legal compliance and liability, is now integrated as a survival as well as a competitive strategy. As a

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result, business enterprises of all sizes and types are now increasingly able to achieve a wide range of benefits from their efforts to design or re-design their products, services and operations while taking environmental concernsand Social Responsibility into consideration.

Tororo Cement Limited (TCL),the largest Cement Manufacturing Company in Uganda with a Cement Production Capacity of 1,800,000 metric tons per year (MTY) is cognizant that innovation is required to meet society’s demands, and that efficiency, market share, risk management, brand value and other core business functions are as critical to good environmental performance as they are to sustainable competition.

Subsequently, we have refined our approach to various elements of our environmental programmes including setting in-house goals that focus on environment, organizational governance, community involvement and development, labour practices and human rights, managing supplier/consumer relationsand reporting our commitments and environmental performance in relation tocorporate social responsibility.

Our Company has been able to move from good intentions to good actions through the following agenda:-.

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

BIOGAS PROGRANMME In partnership with Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) and the Germany Agency for International Co-operation (GIZ) and Heifer Project International, Tororo Cement Limited designed and launched an energy efficiency programme focusing on biogas production.

The programme was designed for the local communities in Tororo District, Eastern Ugandawhere the factory is situated.

Forty four (44) biogas plants worthy UGX 70,000,000 have been set up in four subcounties of Tororo.

This social investment has enabledthe local communitiesto access modern cooking facilities in their homesteads.

In addition, it has provided lighting for common purpose in homes and generation of bio-slurry, an excellent organic fertilizer.

Lighting through biogas energy has reduced household expenditure on hydro electricity power (HEP) and Kerosene, resulting in increased household incomes. This has further enabled the beneficiaries to afford better healthcare, better education for their children and providing light for reading thereby increasing the literacy levels in these local communities.

Plastic Waste Management

Health, and Education Social Development Projects Biogas-slurry, a rich organic fertilizer, has promoted modern organic farming resulting in improvedcropand animal yields. This has led to improved food security in the area.

Importantly, this programme has reduced the communities’ over dependence on wood fuel resulting in improved forest cover, rainfall patterns, reduced atmospheric air pollution and eventual protection of the ozone layer.

TREE AND BANANA PLANTATION PROGRAMME Tororo Cement has designed a tree planting programme in Tororo, Kapchorwa and Moroto where it obtains its raw materials.

About 26,562 trees seedlings have been planted in the three Districts. Specifically, Tororo has taken a share of 16,562 while the 10,000 has been shared between Kapchorwa and Moroto. On the other hand, over 120 acres of Matooke have been established around the factory premises.This programme has promoted increased food security for local communities and environmental conservation in these areas.

TRANSPORT AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME Transport is a key factor in socio-economic development.Conscious of this, TCL has extended support to the community in the

North by constructing 3 bridges in Moroto District facilitating an easy inter-connection between the East and North of the Country.

This programme has boosted the region’s economic activities including better transport, agriculture and education services due to easy accessibility.

The company also assists in maintaining the roads in Amudat by fueling and providing a wheel loader to the district when carrying out road repairs in addition to contributing fuel for the Ministry of Works and Transport grader during road works. In terms of labour practices, we have since 2009 given the onus of excavating marble to the local community while giving minimum oversight. This has provided employment opportunities and increased household income to the local community.

EDUCATION PROGRAMME

AND

HEALTH

Education is the single most powerful tool that can be used to change the world while Health is Wealth. For us to be able to realize any change we need people who understand the circumstances that surround our environment and, to be able to create more wealth, we need healthy people. Tororo Cement is keen on this. We have supported the education sector in our areas of operation by constructing primary and secondary schools. Specifically,

a two-classroom block was constructed at Kawowo Secondary School in Kapchorwa, and a four-classroom block put up in Moroto.

In addition, three students from Moroto have been supported from primary six upto University level through the office of the Prime Minister. Two have already completed and one is soon completing. In terms of health, we have constructed a community Health Centre III in Opedede Village in Osukuru Sub-County, Tororo District which now serves over 5,000 people around the local community.

The company has also distributed mosquito nets to the local communities in Amudat, Kapchorwa and Tororo including providing a Mobile Clinic Van in Moroto and Mattresses to Tororo Government Hospital. This has boosted education and health service provision in these areas.

Our approach and effort to operate in a socially responsible manner that society increasingly demands, has yielded us immense benefits.

There is now a high sense of identity and belonging between the community and the company, importantly, we enjoy increased market share in the East African region and beyond.Tororo Cement Limited will continue to make a positive contribution to the world we live in ■

EnviroConserveAFRICA August/October 2016

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